


How Dare We Sit Quietly

by SirenAlpha



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 13:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4831349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirenAlpha/pseuds/SirenAlpha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After this year, Nursey still has three years with Dex, playing on the same team and together as a defensive pairing. He could settle for just having that, but college is about taking risks, isn't it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from "The Night is Still Young" by Nicki Minaj which I pretty much wrote this whole thing to. 
> 
> I've written quite a bit for this story already, but I also have a lot more to write so I'm not totally sure how frequently I'll update or how long it'll be in the end.

Nursey arrives a little late to dinner, given just about everyone else on the team is sitting down already. Chowder waves him over, pointing to the seat across from him. He moves to take the free seat and finds that he’ll be sitting next to Dex. He smiles at Dex as he sets his tray down, and Dex nods back at him.

“Hey,” Chowder says through a mouthful of food.

“Has anybody else been sneezing a lot?” Shitty asks from the far side of Dex, cutting off a few conversations with how loud he does it. “Like everyone at the Haus has been doing it since Bitty did it this morning. Like it’s the yawning thing except with sneezes.”

Dex snorts at the news, but Chowder shakes his head to answer him. A couple guys toss a few chirps in Shitty’s direction while a couple others return to their previous conversations.

“I haven’t sneezed,” Ransom says, crossing his arms and looking high and mighty.

Nursey catches Dex making a face at Ransom’s statement out of the corner of his eye as he’s eating. Chowder slaps a hand over his face to keep from giggling.

“Well good for fucking you,” Shitty says, waving his fork before sticking it into his potatoes. “I’ve sneezed like twelve times today and you better hope I’m not actually sick or else I’m infecting your ass.”

Ransom makes a disgusted face, but most of the guys have moved on from the conversation. Nursey listens to Chowder ramble on about his day as he eats and contemplates ‘accidentally’ elbowing Dex just to see his reaction when he hears “ah-choo” like someone did their best to mimic how a sneeze sounds.

 “Alright,” Shitty says, throwing down his fork again and quieting the table. “What fucking asshole decided it would be funny to mock our terrible sneezing epidemic?”

Nursey looks at all the faces at the table, but everyone else is looking around, too. Except for Dex, he’s turning red and has his hand over his face. Nursey leans in closer to him, and he hears the ‘ah-choo’ again and watches as Dex moves in time with the sound.

Nursey starts laughing, and Dex looks at him, completely mortified. “It’s Dex, guys. That’s his fucking sneeze.”

“Really?” Shitty asks.

“No, it’s not,” Dex retorts, but ruins it by sneezing again and everyone hears, a couple guys even start laughing.

“I didn’t know anybody could actually sneeze like that,” Bitty says, looking concerned and like he’s going to force a pie on Dex.

“It actually sounds like ah-choo for fuck’s sake,” one of the juniors on the team adds.

“That’s actually fucking great,” Shitty says, grinning. “You’re like a cartoon character or some shit, like a cute baby faced one.”

“What? No, that’s horrible,” Dex retorts shaking his head.  

“No, he’s kind of right,” Holster says, looking at Dex. “I can’t even think of any girls that sneeze that softly. I’m sure they’ll think it’s cute.”

“Not what you’d expect, but then again, Bitty sneezes like a fucking grandpa,” Ransom says.

“Hey,” Bitty says.

“It’s not fucking cute,” Dex snaps and begins shoveling food into his mouth.

“Woah,” Nursey says, putting a hand on Dex’s shoulder. “It’s really not that big a deal. It’s a sneeze.”

Dex stops eating to glare at Nursey. “Fuck off, you’re the one who told them about it.”

Nursey leans back away from him. “I didn’t think you’d get so upset over it.”

“Yeah, well,” Dex says as he drops his fork. “Think about it first next time.”

Dex jerkily scoots his chair out to stand up. He huffs as he picks up his tray and storms off. Nursey watches him leave with what feels like all the progress he’s made with Dex to keep from arguing all the time.

“Did you really have to do that?” Chowder asks with a sigh.

“I didn’t mean to upset him,” Nursey says, returning to his food and trying not to be irritated over how he’d upset Dex. He’d honestly probably should have known that Dex would get upset.

“How do you always manage to get worked up?”

“I don’t know. I swear I’d stop if I knew.”

Chowder stops eating to look him over. “You sure? You do it enough to make it seem like you like doing it.”

“Not true,” he says, but Chowder doesn’t look like he believes him. He really doesn’t want to upset Dex, he only wants a reaction from him. Upsetting him just unfortunately seems to be his most likely reaction. 

Nursey leaves the dining hall with Chowder, and he gives Dex’s dorm a second glace when they pass it. He’d apologize to Dex if he thought he’d even listen to him.

He doesn’t see Dex again until right before the next practice in the locker room. Nursey has the stall next to his, and he sucks in a breath before going to his stall. He notices that Dex does not look at him at all.

“Look, man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

Dex does nothing for a moment before turning to glare at him. His lips are edging towards a pout rather than a frown like he probably intends, and Nursey would tease him over it, but he figures Dex would then endeavor to never do it again.

“It’s whatever, man,” Dex says, shaking his head. “It’s done now.”

Nursey nods and gets to changing, gladder than he should be that Dex has mostly let it go. He tries to keep from teasing Dex anymore about it, but he only makes it to the end of practice.

As the first guys get off the ice, Nursey leans towards Dex and tells him. “They were right, you know.”

“Who? About what?” Dex asks, frowning again.

“The guys,” Nursey says breezily with a shrug. “Your sneeze is cute.”

Dex turns red almost immediately, and he shoves Nursey as hard as he can. Nursey can’t help laughing as he slides backwards, watching as Dex does his best impression of storming off while still in skates and on the ice.

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that,” Nursey calls after him, and he has to swallow to keep from adding ‘babe’ to the end of that sentence. If Dex would shove him for calling his sneeze cute, Nursey figures that would be enough for Dex to punch him over.

Dex glares at him once last time before getting off the ice. He also ignores Nursey in the locker room and changes as quickly as he can.

“What’d you do now?” Chowder asks, watching as Dex heads to the showers ahead of even the guys who came in before them.

“Nothing,” Nursey swears. “I paid him a compliment so I don’t know what he’s all up in arms for.”

“I’m sure,” Chowder says, heading for the showers.

Nursey shakes his head and finishes taking off his gear. He really doesn’t know what Dex’s problem is, whether it’s about the compliment being that he’s cute or that the compliment is for his sneeze. He’d appreciate it if Dex ever bothered to pay him a compliment of any kind.

Dex arrives after Nursey does to dinner in the dining hall that evening, and he picks a seat nowhere near Nursey. Nursey tries to catch his eye for a little while before returning to the conversation, deciding to just let Dex stew.

After a few more days, Nursey figures they’ve settled back into normal when they’re arguing about op-ed pieces on the bus on the way to an away game. Nursey feels a little unsettled about this game and is certain it’s not going to be an easy one for anyone on the team. He knows their opponents are one of the more physical teams, and they can take it, but with Bitty it causes a little extra stress.

Nursey’s feelings are proven right, and he’s sitting on the bench next to Dex with only a few minutes left to the third period, and he can already feel the bruises. They’re tied at one, but Bitty has done well and Jack is on the ice. 

When Jack finally scores, Nursey is barely on his feet before Dex is hugging him. He hugs him back and cheers with the rest of the team. He sits down when Dex does, but leaves his arm around him for a moment longer. The team holds onto the lead until the game finishes.

In the locker room, everyone talks loudly and over each other and congratulates Jack on the goal. Nursey even feels good enough to nudge Dex with his elbow when they’ve both got half their gear off. Dex only turns his grin on him for a moment before returning his attention to Chowder’s epic and exaggerated recap.

Nursey ends up being one of the last onto the bus, and he hears some of the guys already singing victory songs when he enters. He laughs with the rest of the team when one of them hits a bad note and continues down the aisle. He spots Dex standing in front of a window seat and resting his elbows on top of the seat in front of him. Dex nods to him when he sees him, and Nursey wants the guy in front of him to move faster.

“Hey,” Nursey says when he finally gets into the row to stand beside Dex.

“Hey,” he says back.

Nursey leans forward to mimic Dex’s position, but he puts one hand on the seat in front of him and the other on top of Dex’s chair.

“Chowder,” Dex calls then leans over to thump the middle of the chair in front of him. “Sit over here.”

“I’m coming,” Chowder shouts back over the singing.

The coaches start yelling at them all to settle down as Chowder takes the seat Dex pointed out to him.

“Sit down,” Chowder says, waving the two of them off before shoving at Dex to get him off his chair.

“Alright, alright,” Dex says, pulling his hands and dropping into his seat.

Nursey pulls his hand off Dex’s chair before sitting down beside him.

“Nice game,” Dex says, poking his bony elbow into Nursey’s upper arm. “Don’t you think?”

“Yeah, but watch where you stick that,” he says, pushing his elbow away.

Dex elbows him in the side, and Nursey pulls away. “Watch it. I got checked there.”

Nursey rubs his side and watches as Dex rolls his eyes. “Don’t be a baby about it.”

“You cause me enough pain without adding in your elbows, Poindexter.”

Dex grins. “But you’ll still sit with me?”

Nursey bites down on any reassuring responses. Instead he says, “Only to protect other people from you. Someone has to do it.”

“What a martyr.”

He rolls his eyes then shoves Nursey lightly, this time leaving his elbow out of it. Nursey shoulders him in response but doesn’t say anything more.

They aren’t more than ten minutes out before the energy level in the bus drops. The singing has stopped, the lights have dimmed, and conversations have dropped altogether or turned to whispers. Nursey looks over to Dex and sees him halfway to sleep, his head back against the chair, breathing evenly, and blinking slowly.

Nursey sighs and slouches in his seat. He’s never been able to fall asleep in moving vehicles, he just can’t do it. Most of the time this past year, Dex has stayed up and talked with him, but this time Nursey resigns himself to either listening to whoever else is talking or pulling out his iPod to listen to. He can’t think of anything he wants to listen to so he doesn’t bother to get his iPod out.

Nursey hears Dex sigh in his sleep next to him then feels a weight on his shoulder. He’s got Dex’s ginger hair in his face now, and he’s probably not going to be able to move without waking Dex up with his head on his shoulder like this. He sighs and rolls his eyes, but leaves Dex where he is.

The bus seems to go entirely silent after that. Nursey feels tired enough to sleep, but he can’t keep his eyes closed. He feels relaxed like he should be asleep, completely unfocused on anything, and he thinks he would be completely passed out if he were in a bed and not on a moving bus. It’s the closest he’s ever been to sleeping in a moving vehicle.

He rests his cheek on Dex’s head. There won’t be a problem as long as Dex doesn’t find out, and he won’t because he’s asleep. He started it anyways, falling onto his shoulder like that.

The bus stops and the lights come on much sooner than Nursey thinks they should have, and he squeezes his eyes shut in the sudden brightness. He doesn’t move or nudge Dex awake though.

“Hey,” Chowder says through a yawn, poking his head over the top of the seat. He blinks a couple times then squints at them. “Oh, so you’ll get along fine to sleep comfortably.”

Nursey feels pretty confident that he should say something smart back to Chowder, but his brain is not cooperating with any kind of immediacy and gives him nothing to work with. He settles for shooting him an unimpressed look.

“C’mon,” Chowder says. “Time to get up.”

Nursey sighs and pulls his head up and away from Dex’s. He pushes on Dex until his head’s no longer on his shoulder. Dex wakes and looks around. “Are we back?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Nursey says, forcing himself up.

Nursey feels only half awake and doesn’t remember how he makes it back to the dorm. He wakes in the morning buried under all of his covers and feeling sore but so well rested. He groans as he rolls over to check his phone. He’s got a message from Ransom about a party at the Haus to celebrate the win, and a second invite more general for the same party in the group text. He’s got an extra text from Bitty checking in and asking if he’s okay.

He texts back to Bitty first, telling him ‘yes mom’. He responds to Ransom’s text and leaves the one in the group text alone. After a moment’s deliberation, he texts Dex, **Hey sleeping beauty**.

He gets up and out of bed to get ready. When he comes back to his phone he only has a response from Bitty. He sighs and sets aside his phone to get started on the work he needs to finish before he can go to the party.

He hears his phone vibrate after an hour, and he finishes his page before he picks it up. Dex responded **Hey at least im not the one that has a problem with sleeping on the bus**.

 **Oooh seems like sleeping beauty woke up a little grumpy try sleeping a little more** Nursey sends back. His phone vibrates a handful of seconds after he’s set it down, but he forces himself to get a little bit more of his work done before he answers.

**What like you dont need all the beauty sleep you can get? You going to the party?**

Nursey rolls his eyes at the first half of Dex’s text. Dex would need a hundred years of beauty sleep before he got on his level. He texts back **Yeah im going**.

Nursey figures the conversation would drop off after Dex tells him he’s going as well, like anyone on the team wouldn’t now that even Jack’s attending, but Dex keeps it up. Nursey’s not about to stop if Dex isn’t going to. The longest Dex takes to respond the whole day is an hour around lunch time though they don’t cross paths then. Nursey even gets the work he wanted to finish completed in between the texts.

Nursey has learned not to dress up too nice for parties at the Haus as he is very likely to get some kind of alcohol on whatever he wears. Still, he makes sure he looks good before he heads out. Ransom had said that the party was going to be low key, and when Nursey sees the Haus with all the lights on the first floor on and the music blaring loud enough to be heard from outside but nobody forced to be hanging around outside due to lack of room inside, he agrees it’s low key for Ransom and Holster.

“Hey!” Shitty greets him at the door, giving him a one armed hug and passing him an unopened beer.      

“Hey,” Nursey responds.

“Get in there,” he says, shoving him farther into the Haus so he can shut the door.

Nursey heads into the living room and opens his beer. He takes in the room and everyone in it and is about to move towards a girl when someone puts their hand on his shoulder. He looks behind him to see Ransom.

“Hey,” Nursey says, looking for Holster behind Ransom and not seeing him. “Where’s Holster?”

Ransom looks behind himself, like he had no idea Holster wasn’t there. “Not sure. Where’s Dex?”

Nursey shrugs. “I don’t think he’s here yet.”

“When he gets here try to convince him to play beer pong with us. Me and Holster versus you and him,” Ransom says, grinning and patting Nursey’s shoulder.

“I’ll try,” he says, making no promises.

Dex drinks about as much as or a little less than the rest of the team does, not including Jack, but Nursey still has yet to see him agree to play any kind of drinking game. He refuses to even listen to the tips Ransom and Holster give them for beer pong to keep up the legacy.

“If he does agree, you’ll know where to find us,” Ransom says, leaving probably to find Holster.

Nursey turns back to find the girl again, but she’s left the room. He finds Chowder instead.

“Hey, you made it,” he says.

“Yeah, of course,” Chowder responds, grinning.

“Have you seen Dex yet? He said he was coming.”

“Then I’m sure he is.”

Chowder smiles cheerfully at him so Nursey smiles back before starting on his beer. Chowder introduces him to the girl he’d been talking to before Nursey had joined them. Nursey thinks she’s friendly enough, but also way more into talking to Chowder than talking to both of them.

“Hey, I’m gonna go find Bitty,” Nursey tells Chowder and tells the girl. “It was nice meeting you.”

Nursey finds Bitty to be a soothing presence in general, but he edges into amusing when he’s drunk. However, if Jack’s making an appearance, Nursey knows he’s gonna get precisely none of Bitty’s attention. He spots Jack before he even sees Bitty and rolls his eyes and stops looking.

He decides to watch Ransom and Holster dominate beer pong while drinking his own beer. Lardo is talking shit to them about how they’re actually crap, but Shitty must be still be doing his version of playing host for the party as she’s not stepping up to play and kick their asses.

Nursey finishes his beer before spotting Dex. He’s joined the group of people watching the beer pong tournament, and Nursey weaves his way through the people to get to him. He slides his arm around Dex’s shoulders, and Dex tenses before seeing that it’s him then relaxes. “How long have they been going for?” Dex asks.

“Not too long,” Nursey says with a shrug. “Ransom wants us to play versus him and Holster.”

“Not gonna happen,” Dex responds, shaking his head. “Ransom might suck at actual pong, but he and Holster would totally kick our asses in case you’ve forgotten neither of us can aim anything but a puck for shit. I’d like to keep our defeat theoretical and get wasted on my own if you don’t mind.”

Nursey laughs. “I figured you’d say something like that. Let’s go find some beer then.”

“Kitchen?”

“Yeah, Shitty would’ve brought the cooler up for this.”

Dex nods and leads the way to the kitchen. He even lets Nursey leave his arm around his shoulders despite it making it more difficult to get through people. “Oh boy,” Dex says when they get into the kitchen. “Good thing Jack is distracting Bitty.”

Nursey sees what he means when he sees a couple making out while the girl is sitting on the table inconveniently close to the cooler full of beer. Nursey aims his empty beer at the trashcan but misses.

“See, this is why I won’t play beer pong with you.”

He shoves Dex on his way to pick up his beer and put it in the trash.

Dex gestures to the couple making out and completely ignoring them and asks, “You wanna do the honors?”

“Fine,” he says, going over to the table and pushing the cooler farther from the couple before grabbing them beer. “So what’re we gonna do if we’re not gonna do any drinking games?”

“Chowder?”

“Already chatting up a girl, bro.”

Dex rolls his eyes. Nursey already knows that Dex is plenty mystified by Chowder’s ability to get along well with just about anyone, but especially when Chowder seems to be able to out charm even Ransom or Holster when it comes to girls. Nursey remembers one time telling Dex that, “Unlike you, Chowder’s actually personable, friendly, _chill_.”

Dex had responded after shaking his head. “Chowder is not chill, he might not be my kind of not chill, but he’s not. He’s too enthusiastic for that.”

“So you admit you’re not chill?” Nursey had teased, leaning in towards Dex.

Dex had looked him over then, and Nursey remembers wondering if he’d been looking for something. Dex had shaken his head. “Not even you can be chill all the time.”

“We should probably get out of the happy couple’s space at least,” Dex says, opening his beer and taking a swig.

Nursey casts a glance at the couple still at the table. “Yeah, good idea.”

“Maybe we’ll find somewhere to sit,” Dex suggests as they leave the kitchen.

“Like that’s gonna happen.”

People have started dancing to the music in the living room. Nursey turns to Dex and watches him watch them for a moment, wondering if this time Dex would want to join in. Dex moves to head back out into the hall, but Nursey puts a hand on his arm. Dex shoots him a flat look.

“We should dance,” Nursey says, smiling at him.

Dex opens his mouth and Nursey thinks he’s going to laugh, but he shakes his head. “Dude, I can’t dance at all.”

“Like half the people dancing now can’t either.”

“Trust me, it’s a bad idea.”

“Come on,” Nursey pleads, nudging him with his hand.

Dex just shakes his head. Nursey sighs, thinking of nudging Dex a little more and trying to get a kiss from him. He lets that thought go because Dex wouldn’t like it, hasn’t even let a girl kiss him as far as he’s seen. He frowns then, trying to think if Dex had ever told him about his sexuality.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Dex says, patting Nursey on the stomach before heading back into the hall. Dex doesn’t look back, just expecting him to follow, and Nursey doesn’t prove him wrong.

Cheering comes from the crowd around the table watching beer pong. Nursey hears Lardo cackling once the cheers die down some and laughs. “Whose ass did she kick this time?”

“Let’s find out,” Dex says, leading the way through the crowd.

Lardo and Shitty had one end of the table and the pair they had defeated were already leaving. Nursey didn’t recognize them. Someone shouted flip cup, and everyone but Shitty and Lardo started cheering for that.

Nursey shot Dex a look. “You can chug beer can’t you?”

Dex rolls his eyes and proceeds to chug the rest of his beer. “If we’re doing this we better win.”

“Of course,” Nursey says instead of saying ‘I will for you’. Honestly, Nursey knows he’s competitive enough to want to win even without promising it to Dex. He doesn’t chug the rest of his beer like Dex did, but he does finish it off by the time they’ve finished setting up for flip cup. He’s not that into chugging beer but he’s into being next to Dex and winning, and he’ll certainly chug beer for that. He and Dex secure spots right next to Shitty and Lardo.

He watches as the others on their team start drinking then flipping their cups. He braces himself as Dex starts drinking. As soon as Dex gets his cup flipped, Nursey guzzles down the beer as fast as he can. It takes him a couple tries to get his cup flipped then Shitty is drinking. Lardo, holding down the line for them, gets her cup flipped while the opposing team is still on their second to last drinker.

Their side cheers, and Nursey hugs Dex just like he would after winning a game. “Lose beer pong with me next time, yeah?” Nursey asks as he’s pulling away.  

“I’d need to be a lot drunker than this to make any promises like that,” Dex says shaking his head.

“Who’ll face us next?” Lardo shouts over the crowd, and Nursey and Dex stay for the next round of flip cup.

Several rounds later after multiple wins, Chowder finds them. He slaps them both on the back. “We should get going.”

Nursey looks around and sees that a number of the people that had been surrounding them had left.

“Yeah, unless Nursey wants to sleep on the floor again,” Dex says, and Nursey figures it would be a good chirp if Dex hadn’t leaned too far towards Nursey and nearly toppled into him.

“Yeah, let’s get home,” Nursey says, laughing as he helps Dex find his balance again.

“Bye!” Chowder shouts for them as they’re leaving, and only Shitty and Lardo shout it back.

Nursey shivers when they get outside and into the cold.

Dex groans. “I am drunk.”

“At least you’re chill now,” Nursey says laughing.

Dex gives him a funny look. “Is that a joke?”

“How many rounds of flip cup did you guys play?” Chowder asks as he makes his way to the sidewalk.

Nursey tries to remember, but can’t quite come up with a number.

“A lot,” Dex supplies.

Nursey laughs. “Why? Did you not drink any Chowder?”

“I drank,” he says defensively.

Nursey shares a look with Dex, and Dex sniggers.

“Shut up,” Chowder says. “I don’t wanna be in the cold all night let’s go.”

Nursey only falls once in the snow on the way back and considers it a victory.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tonight is the night I get my shit together with Dex/Nursey. I'm sorry this took so long.

Over the next week, Nursey starts to read a little faster as it’s that time of the semester when people start talking worriedly about midterms. After midterms comes papers, and Nursey wants his readings done before he has to start seriously thinking about them. He also starts counting down the days until Dex and Chowder begin to complain about their midterms to him. He had told them to chill last semester and they had taken his advice wrong so they seemed to be avoiding complaining to him now.

Dex caves first and complains while getting breakfast the morning before his first midterm.

“Little late to be complaining about it now,” Nursey says as they make their way with their trays of food to an open table.

Dex tilts his head away then shoots him an annoyed look, and Nursey walks right into a girl moving in the opposite direction. His tray flips up and most of his breakfast ends up on his face and chest and he’s pretty sure the plate he had just broke on the floor. “I am so sorry,” he tells the girl automatically.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” she says, grimacing as she surveys the damage done to her own outfit.

She stomps away to return her empty tray, and Nursey sighs as he kneels down to pick up his broken dishware. His face feels hot, and he fervently wishes he had been paying more attention because this is worse than whacking that kid in the face with his bag.

He looks up to Dex, meaning to ask him for help, but Dex starts laughing. Nursey stares at him because he’d heard Dex laugh before and it hadn’t sounded like this. He’s laughed loud, obnoxiously, and all around pretty ugly with the guys in the locker room and on the bus. Now, Dex’s laugh is quiet, lighter, more melodic, and Nursey just thinks it’s wonderful. His face gets hotter, and he’s pretty sure it’s not from embarrassment anymore.

He has to swallow before asking, “You wanna help?”

“Fine,” Dex says, rolling his eyes. “Hold your horses.”

Nursey frowns, watching as Dex steps around him to set his tray down on the table and grab a few napkins from the dispensers on the table. “Hold your horses?” he asks, not comprehending anything.

“Or as you might say,” Dex says, starting to grin as he kneels down in front of Nursey. “Chill.”

“I probably deserved that,” Nursey says, looking skyward.

“Yeah, you did,” Dex says, laughing so prettily again. He reaches out and wipes off Nursey’s chin with the napkins.

Nursey resists leaning into Dex’s hand, and he wants more than anything for Dex to follow it up by kissing him. He’d feel better with it after knocking into that girl, and he’d have a lot better reason for this rush of affection for Dex than his laugh being adorable. He couldn’t do anything about it either despite Dex being less than a foot from him. They were out in public, and not even at the Haus which was the safest place Nursey could think of for Dex on campus. How did this happen to him with a boy whose sexuality he still had no clue about?

Nursey starts tossing the broken dishes back onto the tray with more annoyance than he’s felt in a long time. Dex pulls his hand back and after a moment starts mopping up the breakfast that made it to the floor. Nurey gets up with the refilled tray and dumps it just like the girl had into the bin for dirty dishes.

“You want to head to the bathroom?” Dex asks as he tosses the napkins into the trashcan.

Nursey looks down at his shirt and sighs, “Yeah.”

Nursey heads to the bathroom and is surprised that Dex follows him, leaving his breakfast at the table. He grimaces at himself in the mirror with food coating the front of his shirt. He grabs paper towels and runs them under the water. He tries to wipe off the worst of it. He’s going to have to change no matter what but at least it’ll make laundry day easier.

“You okay?” Dex asks.

Nursey frowns at him and gets annoyed at himself for doing so. He wipes harder at the stain on his shirt. Why’d it have to be getting food all over himself that got Dex to laugh like that? He grumbles, “I’m fine.”

“If you say so, it’s just, you actually seem like you’re having emotions right now. I seriously don’t think this is as bad as the time you whacked that kid.”

Nursey stares at him. “You think I don’t have emotions?”

Dex shrugs. “You do know you come off like a zen asshole most of the time, right?”

“No, I don’t. If I was an asshole, people wouldn’t like me.”

“There are plenty of people out there who are assholes that people still like. That’s a terrible counter argument,” Dex says, giving him a half grin. “It’s just usually you’re just too chill to like bother emoting or whatever.”

“What does that even mean?” Nursey asks, still annoyed but also desperate to hear Dex’s opinion of him now that his opinion of Dex has gone spinning wildly out of his control.

Dex shrugs. “I don’t know, man, you’re the one that does it. Why don’t you tell me?”

Nursey stares at him for a moment longer than he should before turning back to get the rest of the food off his shirt. Afterwards, Nursey isn’t sure how he made it through breakfast with Dex without pissing him off or having anymore epiphanies. He also spends longer than he thinks he should being annoyed at himself that it took him that long to realize he had a crush on Dex, but then he has to stop himself from ginning stupidly because Dex actually has an adorable laugh to match his adorable sneeze. He doesn’t know why Dex would bother hiding it, but it doesn’t matter because Nursey’s not going to forget it now.

Nursey needs to talk with someone about this, and he certainly can’t do it with anyone on the team or anyone that could talk to Dex. He’s flustered enough as it is having a crush on a teammate, and he doesn’t need anyone telling Dex before he does. He blames taking a week to work up to talking to his mother about Dex on midterms, waiting for their regular skype call rather than texting her.

“Hey,” he says, grinning as he greets her.

“Your dad’s going to be here in a little bit,” his mom tells him, smiling back.

“How have things been?”

He lets his mom talk about what’s been happening in their neighborhood and what she and his father and his sister have been getting up to in his absence. His father still hasn’t joined them for the skype call by the time she wraps up, but Nursey knows his father can get distracted and doesn’t mean to leave them hanging. He texts Nursey goodnight daily to make up for it.

“So, how have you been? Midterms have started haven’t they?” she asks.

“Yeah, but I’m pretty confident about them,” he says, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I, uh, actually wanted to talk about something else.”

“I hope it’s good,” she says, giving him a look that tells him she’s teasing him. “Seeing as you consider it more important than your midterms.”

“Not more important, just in more need of being discussed.”

“Alright, what do you want to talk about then?”

“Well, uh, there’s this guy that I’m interested in,” he starts then clears his throat.

“Is it that boy you keep going on about? Your teammate, the one you seem to enjoy riling up too much.”

“Mom,” Nursey nearly whines, suddenly really glad that this time his roommate is not in to witness this skype call.  

“I told you not to get him upset.”

“I didn’t,” he says, spreading his arms out.

“I know you know how to treat your crushes better than a fifth grader who doesn’t know how to use their words. You like poetry.”

“Mom,” Nursey says, putting his hands over his face. “I didn’t do that. If I did, he probably started it.”

His mother sighs. “I’m sure I’ve told you not to do as your friends do before, too.”

“I’m not jumping off any bridges, okay? Dex is smart enough not to either.”

“Well, at least there’s one good thing about him then.”

“One good thing about who?” his father asks, still off screen.

“The boy Derek has a crush on.”

“Oh,” his dad says then moves to sit down so he’s on screen beside his mom. “Who’s he got a crush on?”

“A boy on his team. What’s his name?”

“We all call him Dex, but his actual name is William Poindexter,” Nursey answers.

“Yikes,” his father says, frowning. “Who would want to name their kid that?”

“Well it’s not like they could choose their last name,” his mom says.

“The nickname’s better,” his father says, nodding definitively.

“Okay, but that’s not the point,” Nursey interrupts.

“He’s not an asshole, is he?”

“No, Mom,” he says, putting a hand over his face. “Why would you even ask that?”

“Well, I just want to be sure. I remember that girl you dated in tenth grade.”

“Mom,” he pleads, not wanting to hear it.

“I can’t believe those things she said afterwards. I told you, you shouldn’t date her, but you went and did it anyways.”

“Mom, it was a mistake,” he says, burying his head in his hands.

“Just because someone is cute doesn’t mean you should date them is all that I’m saying.”

“That’s not what it’s like, Mom,” Nursey says, pulling his hands away. “Okay, Dex is a white boy and a hockey player and he can, on occasion, be a dick, but it’s not like he’s any worse than anyone else on the team. He’s not as bad as some of the boys at Andover.”

“It’s good you didn’t date any of them then,” his mom says, crossing her arms.  

“Yeah, well, none of them were as cute as Dex so,” Nursey says with a shrug.

His dad sighs. “It’s a miracle you’ve dated as few people as you have.”

“Hey,” Nursey says defensively. “I have more requirements than them being cute. I have standards.”

His mom doesn’t look impressed, and Nursey prays she doesn’t bring up his first girlfriend again. Instead, she asks, “How about you tell us a little bit more about him? Pretty much all we’ve heard is that he plays good hockey with you and that you talk a lot.”

“Yeah, he definitely plays good hockey. Um, I’m not sure if he’s majoring in it, but I know he’s doing computer science stuff now.”

“Never thought you’d go for a science person,” his dad says.

Nursey shrugs. “I don’t like hate science or anything. It’s just not a big deal to me. Dex is really into it though. He can just like go for hours talking about it. I don’t understand most of it, but he gets really excited about it.”

“So he’s enthusiastic about more than hockey,” his mom says, seemingly warming up to Dex.

“That’s good,” his dad responds. “Get some variety.”

“Might even be smart, too,” she says, sending a pointed look at Nursey.

“Of course, he’s smart. He’s here on academic and athletic scholarships,” Nursey says.

“That’s definitely a bonus,” his dad says. “But do you have anything in common?”

“Besides hockey?” Nursey asks, laughing. “We talk, well really kind of argue about a lot of things. Dex’s not really a literature kind of person, but he’s really into video games.”

“You’ve played video games, but you’re not that into them,” his mom says, frowning.

“Yeah, but like, that’s not where I was going with that. He’s really into them, and I don’t really know all the games he talks about or everything he says, but he talks about the stories sometimes. That’s the really cool part. That part I can understand.”

“So you’ll at least have something to talk about aside from hockey,” his mom says.

“Yeah, we talk about non-hockey stuff some of the time already.”

“Have you thought about how you’re going to ask him out?” his dad asks.

“Uh, no? I still kinda have to figure out what his sexuality is,” Nursey admits.

“Derek,” his mom chides. “What business do you have asking a boy out if you don’t know what he’s into?”

“It’s not like he’s kissed girls or anything. He could totally not be straight.”

“Which means you haven’t seen him kiss a boy either. Also, not kissing a girl doesn’t tell you a whole lot about his sexuality.”

“I know, mom.”

“You better be polite when you ask him about it. You know better than that.”

“I know. It’ll be fine. I promise not to upset him.”

“Alright,” she says grudgingly, leaning back in her chair.

“At least he’s taking the initiative this time,” his dad says, and Nursey groans as his parents laugh.

“He’s right,” his mom says. “This is the first time you’ve ever asked us about asking someone out.”

“Yeah, but,” Nursey says before deflating. “Okay, true, but do you think it’d be better to ask him out before or after spring break?”

His parents look at each other. His mom responds, “Maybe you should try figuring out what his sexuality is before spring break and then if he’s not straight, you can ask him out after spring break.”

“Wouldn’t that just, like, give everything away?”

“It would give him time to think about it.”

“Okay, I’ll do that then.”

“Good luck,” his dad says.

“I hope it works out for you two,” his mom says.

Nursey sighs. “I do, too.”

He and his parents say their goodbyes, but afterwards, he can’t get back to studying. It takes him some time to figure out when to ask Dex about it. He can’t ask about it in public as he probably wouldn’t even be able to get it out then. He can’t ask anytime or anywhere related to hockey. He doesn’t need anyone on the team hearing about it if Dex turns him down, but he also doesn’t want his feelings getting tied to those places afterwards, especially if it goes poorly. He would have picked the bus after an away game due to the fact it offered some sense of privacy, but he didn’t want to risk the chance of making Dex feel trapped with him.

Nursey considers himself extremely lucky that his midterms finish a good number of days before the start of spring break, and Dex finishes before him. He knows because Dex bragged about it to anyone who would listen even though it meant Dex had two midterms in two days when no one else did.

After his last midterm, Nursey finds himself without a clue as to how to talk to Dex alone. He and Dex don’t actually hang out alone together. They interact almost entirely over things connected to hockey. Nursey thinks he probably wouldn’t even be calling Dex a friend rather than a teammate if not for Chowder.

Two days before the start of spring break, Nursey spots Dex heading out of the library and goes up to him before he can talk himself out of it. “Hey,” Nursey greets him.

“Hey,” Dex replies, smiling at him.

“What are you doing in the library? You’ve been done with midterms like forever.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t have assignments though. I wanted to get it done before break,” he says with a shrug.

“How productive of you.”

Dex looks him over.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he says, starting to fiddle with the zipper on his jacket. “What about you? You got any assignments?”

“None I need to work on right away.”

“So that’s why you’re bothering me,” Dex says, grinning.

“I’m not bothering you. I’m having a conversation.”

“Says you.”

“What? It’s called being friendly. Are you not familiar with the term?”

“Shut up,” Dex says, shaking his head. “I’m plenty friendly.”

Nursey nods. “Yeah, actually, you are.”

Dex stops walking. “Is something up? You’ve been a little weird. Did you fail a midterm or something?”

Nursey blinks and stares at him for a moment. “Okay, if you want an actual answer to that, how about you follow me cause it’s definitely not an academic problem?”

“That’s not weird or suspicious at all,” Dex says, rolling his eyes.

“This is not a conversation you want to happen in public, trust me,” Nursey says as he starts walking again. He relaxes when Dex follows.

“This is pretty serious then?”

“To me, yeah.”

Dex nods and doesn’t bother him for it. Nursey wants nothing more than to not have this conversation with him and just hug him or something and have him understand instead. He doesn’t see many people around the dorms and stops near Dex’s. Dex looks up towards his dorm before looking back to Nursey.

“So, what’s up then?” Dex asks.

“Uh, well, I haven’t really been acting weird, or at least I hope it wasn’t weird. I’ve been trying to be more obvious about flirting with you,” Nursey says, throwing out any plans of trying to have two conversations like this with Dex.

Dex startles, staring at him with wide eyes and the start of a blush. “What?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to flirt with you for a couple weeks now. I, uh, figured out that I liked you. I’d also like to date you, if you’re okay with that,” he explains, running his hand over the back of his neck and trying not to feel sick to his stomach.

“Oh my god,” Dex says, looking away then running a hand through his hair.

“Dex,” he says, taking a step towards him.

“Don’t,” he says, backing away. “Um, I should really go before I say something stupid.”

“If you’re just going to tell me no, you can say that. I can take it.”

“That’s not,” he says, looking a little horrified and breathing too hard. “I don’t know. I need to think.”

“Dex,” he says with more concern.

“Just, please, I’ll text you when I’m ready to talk, okay?” Dex asks, and leaves without waiting for any confirmation.

Nursey stands like an idiot in front of his dorm for a while before shaking his head and walking back to his own dorm. He gets into his room and flops down onto his bed. “Mom was right,” he says into his pillow.

“You okay?” his roommate asks.

Nursey waves him off, not able to pick himself up yet. He didn’t even get a proper rejection and he feels awful. Dex had looked awful after he had asked him out. He’d run off. Nursey groans into his pillow.

He forces himself up eventually, but all he does is pull out his laptop and start mindlessly watching whatever Netflix recommends to him.

“I’m heading out for dinner if you wanna come?” his roommate asks.

Dex still hasn’t responded so Nursey goes with him. Being upset over Dex at least hasn’t ruined his appetite. One of his roommate’s friends catches up with him, and Nursey returns to his room alone.   

It’s past eleven when Nursey’s phone buzzes from a text from Dex. He reads, **I’m ready to talk** and tries to keep breathing.

**Where?**

He waits, and Dex responds **My roommate is here so idk**.

 **Mine’s out** he texts back, trying not to get too hopeful.

 **Then I’ll meet you at your dorm**.

Nursey sets aside his laptop and straightens himself out before going downstairs to wait for Dex.

 **I’m here** Dex texts him, and he lets him in even as Dex avoids his gaze.

“Hey,” Nursey says as he leads the way back to his room.

Dex looks up at him then. He looks as anxious as Nursey feels, and looks away again. “Hey.”

Nursey lets him into his room then gestures to his desk chair. “You can sit there if you want.”

Dex nods and takes a seat so Nursey sits on the bed. He pulls his legs up to sit cross legged and gives Dex his full attention.

“Okay, um, well, I think I need to explain a few things first before I give you an answer,” Dex says, taking a deep breath before looking at Nursey. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah, definitely,” he says with a nod.

“Alright, well, um,” Dex says, looking down and away from him. “This sounds bad, and I mean, I probably should have figured out something was up because I thought Samwell would be a good fit for me, but I really didn’t think about it. I’ve kinda never really been into dating in the first place I’ve had to work so much that I just didn’t even try. I thought it would be more of the same coming to Samwell so I didn’t even, like, think about it.”

Dex rubs his hands over his eyes, and Nursey shakes his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dex. You kinda just started going.”

“You, I’m talking about you asking me out,” Dex says, and for the moment Dex isn’t covering his face Nursey thinks he looks like he’s in pain. “I never thought that it would, like, ever be a possibility that a guy would ask me out so, uh, I never thought about me. Like, if I wasn’t straight so that’s why I didn’t want to talk right after you asked me out.”

“And?” Nursey asks, leaning towards him.

“And this is probably going to sound horrible, but, uh, alright this is just all kinds of awful,” he says, dropping his head and running his hands over his head. “Nothing’s ever come that easy to me, I mean, you chirp me about how awkward and tense I am all the time so you know. And, god, being gay would just be so much worse. It feels fucking terrifying. I can’t even, I don’t think I’d ever be able to tell my parents after some of the things they’ve said. I know for sure they wouldn’t like you.”

Nursey jerks, moving to get up. He doesn’t want to hear this, about Dex’s parents, to be _rejected_ because of some assholes he’s never met. They hadn’t even come to family weekend, and he knows because Dex had been quiet and aggravated all that weekend over it.

“But I do,” Dex says, sounding hoarse and Nursey freezes. “I don’t think I’m straight, pretty sure I should have figured that out about myself a while ago, and I might not be able to come out ever and I’m freaking out like a lot, but I do like you. I know that much anyways.”

Dex sighs, stretching out and resting his head on the back of Nursey’s desk chair. Nursey stares at him, trying to find something appropriate to say while his heart is hammering away in his chest. Dex runs a hand over his face then looks at him.

“I’m pretty sure you’re like way out of my league, and I can hardly believe you asked me at all, but yes, I’ll date you, if you still want to.”

“Holy shit,” Nursey says, feeling like he can breathe again and flopping back onto his bed.

“Hey,” Dex says, sounding offended.

“Sorry, that was a lot of emotions at once, can I hug you?” he asks, getting back into a seated position.

“Uh, I guess?”

Nursey stands up from his bed and motions for Dex to stand. “C’mon, we both know I’d probably topple the chair if I tried to hug you while you’re in it.”

“Yeah, you probably could,” Dex says, standing but eyeing Nursey warily as he does it.

Nursey grins as he wraps his arms around Dex, one arm around Dex’s waist and the other higher towards his shoulders. Dex takes a moment before relaxing and placing his arms around Nursey’s shoulders. “We’re gonna date now, okay?” Nursey says.

“Just like that?”

“Yeah, and I’m pretty sure I’m not out of your league. I am hotter than you though, that’s true.”

“Hey,” Dex says, pulling back.

“But,” he says, grinning as he finishes. “You’re adorable, so we’re even.”

Dex makes a face. “I’m not adorable. I’m a 6’2” hockey player.”

“An adorable 6’2” hockey player,” Nursey corrects. “Are you sure you’re 6’2”? Cause I’m 6’2” and I’m pretty sure I’m taller than you.”

Pressed close and lined up together, Dex’s eyes are just below Nursey’s eye level. Dex starts blushing when he says, “Well, I know I’m 6’2”.”

“Then I must be 6’3”,” Nursey says. “But we can argue later, we should do something now. Do you want to watch a movie or make out?”

Dex’s blush darkens immediately, and Nursey sees Dex look down at his lips. “Uh, movie,” Dex answers.

“Damn, kinda hoping for the other option, but a movie is fine.”

Dex splutters as Nursey releases him from the hug to collect his laptop. “What do you want to watch?”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Dex says.

“Okay, what about Disney? You good with that?” he asks as he pulls Netflix up again.

“Sure, Disney’s fine,” he says, coming around to stand awkwardly at the side of the bed.

“You can sit down. The bed’s not gonna hurt you.”

Dex rolls his eyes, but kicks off his shoes and gets onto the bed. Nursey settles back against the pillows. He picks the first Disney movie that comes up, and by the time he’s gotten the movie started, Dex has sat down on the bed next to him but without touching him at all.

“You can cuddle with me, you know. We don’t need to leave room for Jesus or anything,” Nursey tells him.

Dex socks him in the shoulder. “Shut up,” he grumbles, but he listens to him and settles back against Nursey’s pillows and carefully presses himself up against his side.

Nursey smiles to himself, watching the movie and waiting for an opportunity to pull Dex closer. They haven’t even watched for ten minutes when Dex sighs, and Nursey looks over to see that he dropped his head back against the pillows and his eyes are only half open. “I’m not gonna make it,” he says, barely louder than a whisper and on the edge of turning into a rasp. “I’m gonna fall asleep.”

“You want me to put on something more exciting?”

Dex chuckles and taps Nursey’s chest with the back of his hand. “Not sure that’d help. Who knew epiphanies were so exhausting?”

Nursey sighs and stops the movie, preparing to put his laptop aside. “Emotions are pretty tiring. That’s why I tell you to chill.”

Dex chuckles, and Nursey finds it as adorable as ever. Dex sighs, “Yeah, and I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t fall asleep in your bed.”

Nursey frowns and puts his laptop some place he won’t knock it off of. “It’s not like anything bad would happen if you did.”

“But isn’t there, like, a rule about not letting people stay in the dorms with you?”

“No?” he asks. “I thought there was just a thing about not doing the people on your floor.”

“Right, floorcest,” Dex says then giggles. Nursey wants to coo over how adorable he is, but he knows Dex won’t like it.

“What the hell is floorcest?” he asks instead.

“It’s just what our RA called doing the people on your own floor, you know, like incest. Why? What did your RA call it?”

“Doing the people on your floor like a normal person,” Nursey says, rolling his eyes.

“It’s a good thing we’re not on the same floor then,” he says, shifting to get more comfortable then frowning. “Would people doing each other in the Haus be Hauscest?”

Nursey can’t help laughing, leaning over to rest his forehead on Dex’s shoulder. “What the fuck, Dex? No, it wouldn’t.”

“What? It was a legitimate question.”

Nursey frowns, picking up his head. “Do you think Jack and Bitty are, wait, what the hell did you call it? Hauscest?”

Dex laughs. “Okay, it does sound a little ridiculous, but I don’t know, man. They could be.”

“Whatever then, but we’re going to work on your use of terms of endearment. It is not sexy to call your boyfriend man or bro.”

Dex looks him over, not even raising his head. “You got something in mind?”

“For me? Not really,” Nursey shrugs then smirks. “Got one for you though, sleeping beauty.”

Dex blushes darkly. “Oh, were you flirting with me when you did that? I thought you were just being a dick ‘cause I fell asleep and you had to stay up on the bus alone.”

“No, I wasn’t mad,” Nursey says, shaking his head. “I actually got pretty close to falling asleep that time. Speaking of, still think you’re gonna pass out?”

Dex takes a deep breath and nods. “Yeah, sorry, not very romantic.”

“It’s fine,” he says, shaking his head. He wants Dex to stay awake with him and keep talking while he’s soft and so willing to laugh. He wants to fall asleep with Dex, pressed up against him and his arm around him. He wants to take absolutely everything Dex will give him, but he reminds himself that Dex said yes and that’s more than enough for tonight because that means there’s going to be time for everything else he wants. “My roommate probably wouldn’t like it if you stayed over anyways.”

“Yeah,” Dex says, dragging the word out in a sigh. “I don’t really want to explain anything to your roommate, no offense to him.”

“Okay, well, I can walk you back then.”

“You’d do that?”

“Yeah, of course,” Nursey says, leaning in to press a careful kiss to Dex’s cheek.

He pulls away to see Dex looking at him with half lidded eyes. Dex reaches up and places his hand at the back of Nursey’s neck, brushing his thumb across Nursey’s skin. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, shaking his head and climbing over Dex to get off the bed, even if it means pulling away from Dex’s hand. “We should get going before you really fall asleep.”

“Yeah,” Dex says before forcing himself off the bed.

They both pull on shoes then head out into the hall. “Are you staying for spring break?” Dex asks as they make their way to the entrance.

“No, I’m going back home,” Nursey says, shaking his head.

“Oh,” Dex says, and Nursey’s only heard him sound that way after they’ve lost a game that they really deserved to. “I am staying. I thought it would be a good time for us to, I don’t know, actually do something together.”

“Oh, yeah, that would have been nice,” he responds. “We could always skip class. We’ve got two days left before break anyways.”

“No, I really can’t,” Dex says, sounding more tired than he had half passed out in Nursey’s bed. “I don’t have class Friday afternoon, though. Are you free then?”

“Yeah,” Nursey says, not actually having class then. He’d skip it if he did anyways. There wasn’t exactly much getting done in his classes between midterms having finished and spring break coming up.

“Ok, good,” he says as they head outside.

“What do you want to do then?”

“I don’t know, but we’ve got time to figure something out,” he says then shrugs. “I am warning you, though, I haven’t exactly dated much.”

“I know, you told me earlier, remember?” Nursey says, smirking at him. “Don’t worry, I’m sure I can teach you a few things.”

Dex rolls his eyes. “Pretty sure if we’re going to be dating we’re supposed to be on equal terms in the relationship.”

“I thought you were supposed to be half asleep, Poindexter,” he says, shaking his head. “Where’d you hear that from?”

“Not sure, but I must have picked it up somewhere.”

Nursey shrugs, and they reach the door into Dex’s dorm. “Hey, Nursey,” Dex says, grabbing his arm.

“Yeah?” he asks, turning back to him.

“Could you maybe not announce this to everyone?” he asks, frowning. “I’m not saying like keep it a secret, but I do kinda need to figure out coming out or whatever.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, that’s fine,” he promises.

“Thanks,” he says, relaxing his shoulders and giving Nursey a small smile.

Nursey glances up at the door before taking a step closer to Dex. “How do you feel about a goodnight kiss?”

“Uh, I’d be good with that.”

“Good,” Nursey says, grinning. He uses his free hand to cup Dex’s face then presses a gentle and quick kiss to Dex’s lips, barely feeling them before pulling away again.

“Kinda expected more from you,” Dex says, looking at Nursey’s lips rather than his eyes.

“Really?”

“Goodnight,” Dex says sweetly, ignoring his question. He kisses Nursey’s cheek then pulls away from him and heads up the steps. He spares Nursey a parting glance before heading inside.

Nursey sighs and doesn’t bother to hide his smile as he heads back to his dorm. His roommate has made it back and already gotten ready for bed, and Nursey gets ready for bed quietly then shuts out the light. He gets into bed and curls up under the cover then groans, pressing his face into his pillow.

“What’s wrong?” his roommate asks, already half asleep.

“Nothing, just something stupid.”

Nursey can’t stop thinking about just how recently he’d had Dex in his bed. He’d had Dex lying in his bed and done nothing with that opportunity and now only had a mental image to show for it. He couldn’t have done anything even if Dex hadn’t been ready to fall asleep, but fuck if he didn’t want to right now. He hopes Dex is feeling the same, but he doubts it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully that wasn't too bad.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting again to make up for how long it took to get the second chapter up. It'll be a while before the next one's up though because I'm changing a thing.

Nursey has to have fallen asleep at some point as he wakes to his alarm for breakfast. He makes it to the dining hall when most of the team is already there, including Dex. He grabs his food quickly then takes the open seat next to Dex. Dex greets him with a smile, and Nursey returns it.

Chowder is sitting across from Dex so Nursey tells him, “Hey.”

“Hey,” Chowder says back.

Nursey finishes a few bites before noticing that Chowder isn’t eating. “Something up?”

“Did you guys do something?” Chowder asks, frowning. “You guys are acting a little weird.”

Dex turns to Nursey and his eyes are wide.

“Well?” Chowder asks again.

Nursey shrugs. “You can tell him whatever you want.”

“Oh, um,” Dex says, turning from Nursey to Chowder. He runs his hand through his hair before answering. “We’re dating?”

Chowder slaps his hand down hard on the table. “You’re dating?”

“Fucking hell, Chowder,” Dex says, dropping his utensils and leaning back in his chair. “Announce it to the whole damn school, why don’t you?”

Chowder sucks in a breath loudly then claps his hands over his mouth and looks ready to burst. “Oh my god, that’s so great, you guys.”

“Who’s dating?” Ransom asks from a few seats down.

“Dex and Nursey,” Chowder answers before Nursey can get his mouth open. Dex draws in a breath, and it sounds like a hiss.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Holster says, looking up from his breakfast. “Nursey is dating Dex?”

“I thought Dex was straight,” Shitty says.

“Um, no, actually, I’m not,” Dex says, leaning to glare at him. “I’m pretty sure the fact that I’m dating a dude illustrates that fairly clearly.”

“You know, you don’t have to be a dick,” Nursey tells him, quiet enough so the others won’t hear.  

Dex turns his glare on him. “I didn’t want to be talking about this over breakfast the morning after.”

“How long have you been dating?” Bitty asks.

Nursey puts his hand on Dex’s shoulder even if he doubts Dex would ever say something caustic to Bitty no matter how worked up he got. “It’s been, like, less than a day,” Nursey answers. “So we’d appreciate if you eased up.”

“Oh, of course,” Bitty says, nodding and turning away altogether.

“Well, congrats,” Shitty says, and others murmur more along the same lines.

Nursey grins back at them even though Dex does nothing to acknowledge their well-wishing. He wraps his arms around Dex’s shoulders and gives him a squeeze. He leans his head in and whispers, “See? They’re fine with it. You don’t have to be worried.”

Nursey is fairly certain a day ago Dex would have tried to shove him away, but Dex just goes back to eating his breakfast. Nursey eventually has to pull his arm away to eat his own. He catches Chowder watching them, but Chowder starts shoveling food into his mouth instead of saying anything.

When they finish up eating and are leaving, Nursey tells Dex, “Sorry.”

“For what? You weren’t the one that told Chowder.”

“Yeah, but I also get that that wasn’t really how you wanted to tell everybody. Chowder was just happy for us. You didn’t have to jump down everyone’s throat though, maybe.”

“I know, but,” Dex says, stopping to fist his hand in his hair. “I didn’t expect him to be so loud about it.”

“Well, just think about it this way,” Nursey says, stepping forward and putting his hands on Dex’s shoulders. “Now, you don’t have to tell anyone on the team yourself, and we’ll be fine being all couple-y at the Haus.”

Dex narrows his eyes at him. “What exactly do you expect us to do at the Haus?”

Nursey grins. “Whatever we can get away with.”

He rolls his eyes and pushes Nursey away. “Fantasize about that all you want, but I have to start heading to class.”

Nursey groans as Dex starts to pull away. “You’re killing me here, Dex.”

He hooks his arm around Dex’s neck and places a kiss as close to his lips as he thinks he can get away with. Dex flushes immediately. He says, “I’ll text you later.”

“I’ll be waiting for it, babe.”

Nursey laughs at the unimpressed look Dex shoots him before he leaves. Nursey has his own class to get so he can’t spend all morning lollygagging. He gets himself together, focuses on his classes, and gets the work that he needs to get done finished.

He doesn’t hear from Dex after his classes finish, but he gets a text from him later asking **Dinner?**

**Yeah i’ll meet u at the dining hall in a few** he texts back. He sets aside his laptop then pulls on his shoes and heads out. He finds Dex outside the entrance to the hall.

“Hey,” he says, holding out his arms for a hug.

Dex gives him a flat look, but gives Nursey the hug he wants. He even gives Nursey a squeeze before saying “Hey.”

“Let’s go eat,” Nursey says, leading the way into the dining hall and not taking hold of Dex’s hand like he wants to.

After they get their food and get seats, Dex says, “Chowder spent all of class apologizing, and it was almost worse than what he did this morning. Everybody kept looking over at us.”

Nursey shrugs. “He just needs a little volume control. You did accept his apology though, right?”

“Yeah, meant it, too.”

“So we’re good to go to Ransom and Holster’s pre-spring break party?”

Dex frowns. “I already told them I was going. What does Chowder have to do with that?”

Nursey sighs. “We’re dating. Now that Chowder announced that to everyone, we can go as a couple this time.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, keep up with the program, Poindexter.”

“You probably shouldn’t call me by my last name anymore if I can’t call you bro,” Dex says then shakes his head. “What exactly does going as a couple together entail?”

“Uh, we go together and leave together. We don’t make out with any randos.”

“Okay, you’re the only one in danger of doing that.”

“Uh, but I won’t. I’ve got you to make out with.”

Dex flushes again, and Nursey smiles because this is so much better than making him turn red with anger.

“You don’t mean at the party do you?” Dex asks. “I’m not a fan of PDA.”

Nursey leans in, smiling as charmingly as he can. “So we find a dark corner.”

Dex stares at him wide eyed for a moment then shakes his head. “You shouldn’t make that sound appealing.”

He laughs. “It sounds appealing because it is.”

“The dark corners of the Haus are probably grosser than the couch. That’s not appealing at all.”

“Well, if you’re suggesting we make out on that couch because it’s cleaner-,”

“Shut up,” Dex says, interrupting him. “We are not doing that.”

“We can make out at some point though right? I vote your bed.”

Dex makes a face. “Why my bed?”

Nursey tilts his head, trying to figure out whether or not to tell the truth, that he wanted Dex to suffer as much as he had the night before, to him in this setting. “I already got you into mine.”

Nursey laughs at the unimpressed look Dex gives him, but stops laughing when Dex kicks his shin. “It’s not a competition.”

“Isn’t it always?”

Dex shrugs. “It doesn’t have to be.”

Nursey mimics his shrug, mulling the information over and thinking of what more Dex would share with him now that they’re dating. “I still vote your bed.”

“I thought the accomplishment was in getting me into your bed?” Dex says then makes a face. “That sounds dirtier than it was.”

“Yes to both,” Nursey says, laughing. “And okay I don’t really care where we do anything just that we do something.”

“We could do something now,” Dex suggests. “Well, after we finish eating anyways.”

Nursey stares at him for a moment then starts shoveling food into his mouth.

“Oh my god, Nurse, what the hell,” Dex says, reaching across the table to shove at his shoulder. “You’re gonna choke on something. Chew.”

Nursey nods, chewing before swallowing and taking a gulp of water. Dex looks him over. “Are you really that committed to making out with me?”

“Um, yeah,”

Dex doesn’t say anything for a moment and then takes a breath and says, “Then could you try not to die before we actually do it?”

Nursey nods again. “Sure.”

“It’s a low bar, you should be able to make it.”

“Harsh, dude.”

Dex laughs, the light melodic way he should always laugh. Dex must notice Nursey staring because he asks, “What?”

“You just,” Nursey shrugs. “Have a nice laugh.”

“No way,” Dex responds, shaking his head. “My laugh’s horrible.”

Nursey considers saying something to counter him, but Dex is eating and Nursey wants to finish when he does.

When they finish dinner and are leaving the cafeteria, Nursey puts his arm around Dex’s shoulders.

“You know, my roommate is actually probably going to be in,” Dex says as they start towards the dorms.

Nursey shrugs. “We can watch the movie you fell asleep for.”

“Okay, that should be fine.”

Dex leads the way up through his dorm to his room. Nursey starts feeling nervous about halfway up. He does really want to make out with Dex, but he doesn’t want to make him or his roommate uncomfortable. Dex shoots him a smile before unlocking his dorm room, and Nursey tells himself that Dex would have absolutely no problem with telling him if he was bothering him so he had nothing to worry about.

“Oh, he’s not in,” Dex says, and as Nursey follows him into the room he sees that the room is empty of people but filled with crap laying just about everywhere. “That’s weird.”

“Maybe he’s still eating.”

Dex rolls his eyes. “You’re the one who scarfed their food.”

“But it was for you.”

Dex laughs as he moves away to get his laptop, and Nursey smiles, wanting to wrap Dex up in his arms. “Which side of the bed do you want?” Dex asks.

“If I get the wall will I hit my head on your book shelf?”

“Probably not, it hasn’t happened to me yet.”

“Really? That seems like something that would happen to you.”

“Says the guy who whacked a kid in the face with his bag.”

“Could you stop bringing that up?”

Dex grins at him. “Oh no, I’m not letting that go until you do something even worse.”

Nursey tilts his head. “The dining hall disaster wasn’t bad enough?”

“That was funnier not worse.”

“You know, you probably shouldn’t mock your boyfriend’s pain.”

“You didn’t hurt yourself. You just got messy,” Dex says, sitting down on his bed and opening up his laptop.  

“There are better ways to get messy,” Nursey says as he sits down next to Dex, making sure their thighs touch.

Dex shoots him an unimpressed look. “If I’d known you were gonna try and make a sex joke out of that, I would have gone with dirty.”

“What if I was talking about mud wrestling?”

Dex looks him over, his eyes taking a longer time to come up than they had to go down. “I wouldn’t believe it for a second.”

“This is highly inappropriate for watching a Disney movie.”

Dex laughs, “You started it.”

“I’d stop if you started the movie.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” he says, pulling up the movie. He kicks off his shoes then pulls his legs up onto the bed. He scoots back to sit against his pillow then pats the bed next to him. Nursey rolls his eyes and kicks off his shoes and joins him. He puts his arm around Dex’s shoulder, and Dex gives his hand a squeeze before starting the movie.

“You’re not gonna start from where we left off?” Nursey asks.

“I wasn’t actually paying too much attention so we might as well start from the beginning.”

“Fine,” he says with a sigh, shifting to settle more comfortably against Dex.

Dex starts the movie, and they get to around the same point they had stopped before when they hear the door. Dex sits up, pausing the movie. “Hey,” he greets his roommate.

“Hey,” his roommate says, giving Nursey a weird look. “You’ve got another one?”

“Another one what?”

The roommate makes a face. “Boyfriend?”

Dex makes a choking noise, and Nursey sits up to put his arm around Dex’s neck. “What’s this about another boyfriend? You cheating on someone with me already?”

“No,” Dex snaps, elbowing Nursey in the side. “I’m not dating anybody else.”

“Then who was the blond guy I let into our room for you when you were sick?” the roommate asks.

“Bitty,” Dex growls, putting a hand over his face.

Nursey laughs way too hard, “Oh my god, he thought Bitty was dating you.”

“Is it too much if I send Bitty a fuck you for that?” Dex asks.

“Chill, Dex, this is hilarious,” he says, moving his hand to Dex’s shoulder and giving him a shake.

“Then why’d the guy bring you food?” the roommate asks, looking horribly confused.

Nursey lets Dex handle his roommate and pulls out his phone to text Bitty. **Dex’s roommate thought he was cheating on you with me**.

“You know what, I’m just gonna go,” Dex’s roommate says, and Nursey is pretty sure he mutters “hockey players are weird,” on his way out.

“I am so sorry,” Dex says, and his phone buzzes before Nursey can answer. Dex pulls out his phone to check it, “You told Bitty about it?”

“It was funny. Did he apologize?” Nursey asks, trying to look over Dex’s shoulder at the text. Dex pulls his phone away.

“Yeah, not that he knows what he did wrong. He also says he hopes he didn’t ruin our relationship.”

“Just a misunderstanding, tell him it’s fine then let’s get back to our movie,” Nursey says, running his hand down Dex’s back before pulling it away.

Dex responds to Bitty’s text, tapping harder than really necessary for typing, then settles back down beside Nursey. He starts the movie again. Nursey enjoys having Dex pressed up along his side more than he enjoys watching the movie, but he keeps his eyes on the screen. A little past the halfway point, Nursey feels Dex move and then Dex kisses him at the corner of his lips.

Nursey turns and stares at Dex. Dex gives him the smallest of smiles, looking a little proud of himself, then settles back down and focuses on the movie again.

Nursey can’t even look back at the screen, not when Dex has okayed kissing and still has that little satisfied smile on his face. Nursey leans in to whisper into Dex’s ear, “You know, we don’t have to finish the movie.”

“But it’s just getting good,” Dex responds, not even looking at Nursey.

“You’re the worst,” he says with a sigh, moving away and seeing Dex grin. “You’re so lucky you’re cute.”

“I’m not cute,” Dex insists, and his frown definitely looks more like a pout from the side.

“It’s a compliment,” Nursey says as he shifts to lie on his side and face Dex. “You don’t take my compliments, and you never compliment me.”

“That’s because there’s nothing about you to compliment.”

Nursey rolls his eyes. “C’mon, there’s gotta be something you like.”

“Nope, nothing,” Dex says, still resolutely watching the movie.

“You don’t think I’m cute?”

“Not at all.”

Nursey leans in closer to Dex, wondering what it’d take to get him to look away from the movie. “Good looking?”

“Not in the slightest.”

Nursey presses a kiss to the corner of Dex’s jaw. Dex doesn’t react beyond blushing so Nursey asks, “Hot?”

“Not on your life.”

Nursey kisses Dex’s cheek, right over where his blush is darkest. “Sexy?”

“You wish.”

“Absolutely,” he says, kissing the corner of Dex’s lips just as he had kissed him.

Dex stops the movie.

“Oh thank god.”

Dex gives him a flat look. “I can turn it back on.”

“Don’t.”

For a half moment, Nursey fears Dex won’t listen, but he shuts his laptop and puts it aside. “Well, you certainly are persistent.”

Nursey shrugs. “I prefer to think of it as ambitious.”

“What are you, Slytherin? And since when is dating me ambitious?”

Nursey presses his lips together. “I couldn’t figure out your sexuality, and that made things a little difficult.”

Dex laughs. “I couldn’t figure it out either so how on earth would you know?”

“You couldn’t experiment like a proper college kid and make out with whoever at a Haus party?”

“I told you, I don’t like PDA.”

“I think you just enjoy being difficult.”

Dex nods. “I do, actually.”

Nursey laughs, and Dex smiles at him. “How about you spare me and focus that on the teams we face, hm?”

“And what? Be nice to you?”

“Yes,” Nursey says exasperatedly. “I am your boyfriend after all.”

Dex tilts his head. “That actually sounds nice. Hey, should I still call you Nursey?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t you?” Nursey asks with a shrug.

“Cause we’re dating now,” Dex says, rolling his eyes like Nursey wasn’t the one that’d asked him out. “We’re not just hockey teammates anymore.”

“Okay, I see your point, but we’re used to them. Why fix what isn’t broken?” 

“It’s not about fixing anything,” Dex sighs. “I don’t know why I thought you’d be more into it.”

Nursey takes in a breath, looking away from Dex. If they were talking about terms of endearment, he’d be all over it. He wants to call Dex by every one of the regular ones and all the overly cute and obnoxious ones, too. However, he’s used to calling Dex by his nickname and hearing him call him Nursey. “So what? You want me to call you William?”

Dex makes a face. “Uh, no, anyone not on the team calls me Will.”

“You don’t even look like a Will,” Nursey says, frowning.

“Did you make your past boyfriends call you by your hockey nickname then?”

“What?” Nursey asks, wondering where Dex got that idea from. “I haven’t had any boyfriends before, just girlfriends.”

“Oh,” Dex says, staring at him a moment then shrugging. “My point still stands, did you make them call you Nursey?”

“I didn’t make them do anything. They weren’t on my team, didn’t even play hockey, well not ice hockey anyways, and they called me Derek. Well, actually, the first one called me Der but she was kinda a dick so we can ignore that.”

Dex makes a face at the name. “Der? Really?”

“I swear I’m not making it up. My mom still hates her.”

“You asked out a girl your mom hated?” Dex asks, shaking his head.

“No, my mom didn’t really know her beforehand, and she was the one that asked me out. Actually, all of my past girlfriends asked me out.”

“All of them? How many have you had?”

“Just three, pretty evenly spaced apart actually. I meant to ask the other two out, but they asked me out first,” Nursey explains with a shrug.

“So,” Dex says, quieter than before, and he runs his tongue over his lip. “I’m your first boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Nursey says, shifting again to get more comfortable. “Of course, I’ve known I can be into guys for a while now, but I didn’t ever really want to ask one out before. What about you?”

“Hm?” Dex asks, now beginning to fidget.

“You said you hadn’t dated anyone, right?”

“Um, yeah, I never felt like I had the time so I didn’t ever really bother to try. I think pretty much all of the times I’ve kissed somebody has been in like, stupid games,” Dex says, blushing, looking away, and fidgeting.

Nursey puts his hand on his arm. “So I guess this’ll be a little new for both of us.”

“Yeah, more for me than you.”

“You’ll be fine,” Nursey says, grinning. “I’ll take care of you.”

Dex rolls his eyes. “I don’t need to be taken care of. You just need to not be a dick.”

“I’m less of a dick than you are already.”

“Whatever lets you sleep at night.”

“I mean, it’s just factually accurate,” Nursey says, leaning in closer.

“Hm,” Dex says, biting on his lower lip as he starts to smile and Nursey tries not to focus on it too much. “I was gonna make a horrible joke, but decided not to.”

“Well thanks for sparing me from it,” he says, laughing when Dex rolls his eyes.

Dex doesn’t say anything in response, and he looks like he’s about to start fidgeting again but is trying not to.

“Relax,” Nursey says, placing his free hand on Dex’s shoulder.

Dex huffs out a weak laugh. “At least you didn’t say chill.”

“Whatever works,” he says, watching as Dex starts to relax again. He runs his hand down Dex’s arm, thinking it would be too much if he snuck his hand under Dex’s arm to wrap it around his waist and pull him closer. Dex has his arm crossed over his torso so Nursey slides his hand up Dex’s chest, feeling it rise as he breathes in, to reach up and cup his face. Nursey doesn’t think he’s ever been this anticipatory of a kiss before, feels it in his chest how much he aches with the desire, and he sees Dex watching his face and he’s almost afraid to try and kiss him.

“You’re not gonna cop out on me are you?” Dex asks almost at a whisper.

“Don’t you dare try to kill the mood,” Nursey whispers back and tilts Dex’s chin up.

Nursey kisses him, and he can tell Dex pretty much doesn’t know what he’s doing when it comes to making out and is still a little tense, but it doesn’t stop him from following his lips when Nursey pulls away.

“Okay,” Dex says, nodding to himself. “I kinda like the stubble.”

Nursey rolls his eyes. “We can’t make out more if you talk.”

Dex does his pouty looking frown, and Nursey kisses him again, trying to keep things slow even when Dex grabs the front of his shirt and starts to twist the fabric.

“Oh my god!”

Nursey nearly bites off his own tongue scrambling away from Dex. He feels weirdly relieved that it’s just Dex’s roommate standing just inside the door with his hands over his eyes because, hey, at least it’s not his mom. “You couldn’t’ve put a sock on the door handle or something?” the roomie asks.

Dex groans. “We were making out not fucking.”

“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that,” the roommate says, pulling his hands away to glare at Dex.

“I’m gonna go,” Nursey says, sitting up and trying to get off the bed. He pretty much falls off, but at least he didn’t land on his face. Dex laughs before checking if he’s okay.

“Hey,” Nursey says, punching Dex in the leg. “Some boyfriend you are.”

“Ow,” Dex says, quieting his laughter. “Look on the bright side. This is worse than whacking that kid in the face.”

Nursey drops his shoulders and rolls his eyes. “Are you ever going to let that go?”

“I just said I would,” Dex says, getting up from the bed smoothly.

“Just get out of here and stop contaminating our room with your romance,” the roommate pleads.

“Let’s go,” Dex says, putting his hands on Nursey’s shoulders and steering him out of the room. “Sorry about that.”

“I should probably get back to my room and get packing anyways,” Nursey says as Dex walks him to the exit. “My parents are picking me up Saturday.”

“They’re driving up?”

“Kinda not worth it for me to fly down and back.”

“Oh, right,” Dex says with a nod. “You know, I’ve never actually been to New York.”

“Well, now you can use me as an excuse to visit,” Nursey says smiling.

He rolls his eyes, but says, “Yeah, maybe.”

They stop at the doors and face each other. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” Nursey asks.

“Yeah, feel free to text me, too,” he answers then shrugs. “Not that you don’t text me enough already.”

“Alright, I will,” he promises. He leans forward to press one last kiss to Dex’s lips. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

Nursey looks back as he opens the door, and Dex gives him a wave before turning to head back upstairs. Nursey heads back to his dorm. His roommate gives him a nod in greeting before going back to his laptop. Nursey pulls down his suitcase and starts packing for spring break. He spends some time writing after that, but the last thing he does before going to bed is pulling up the hockey team’s group text. It’s filled with speculation about his and Dex’s relationship, and though they don’t use their names, their references are super obvious.

**Little early for a rumor mill guys** Nursey texts them, rolling his eyes and figuring Dex is staunchly ignoring them in the hope it goes away on its own. Like anyone on the team would let it go after what he’s heard about Jack and Bitty’s whatever.

Ransom texts back **aw**.

**Way to ruin the fun** Holster adds.

Shitty sends a series of frowny faces.

**I just wanna know you’re doing okay** Bitty texts.

Before Nursey can respond, Dex texts **lies u love listening in on everybody’s business**.

**That is SLANDER** Bitty responds.

**Pretty sure its libel if its written and Bitty u have no ground to stand on** Nursey adds.

**Oh no** Holster texts.

Ransom follows up with **theyre working together now**.

Nursey can’t help smiling at that. He and Dex have been partners on the ice for a while, but now they’re gonna be partners off it, too. He switches over to texting just Dex and sends him a row of heart emojis. He hopes Dex blushes when he gets it and feels a little bad he won’t get to see it.

**Contain yourself** Dex sends him **Its been like barely 24 hrs**.

**Never!!!** He sends back, grinning as he sends it.

**Whatever just pack ur shit and go to bed**.

Nursey bites his lip, thinking over what he should send back. Gut reaction is to send ‘luv ya too’, but Dex is already worried over just hearts. He had kinda been hoping it’d be easier to talk to Dex after asking him out, but apparently not. He’s certain Dex still won’t hear a lot of what he wants to say.

He texts Dex **I’m packed thx for asking and sweet dreams sleeping beauty**.

He waits for several minutes for Dex to respond, wondering how Dex will take the nickname now that he knows what he really means by it, but he’s not nervous. Dex sends **Night Derek**.

“Oh,” he says, taking in that Dex has called him by his name for this first time and he doesn’t even get to hear him say it. His face feels hot and his chest too warm, and he’s pretty sure he hasn’t had that reaction to someone texting him his name before. He wants to kiss Dex again, willing to even walk over to his dorm without getting properly dressed just to do it.

He texts back **Youve made ur point**.

Dex sends **;)**

“You’re the worst,” Nursey whispers to his phone. He wants to stay up texting Dex, maybe even calling him to hear his voice, but he needs to sleep if he’s going to stay awake for the party. He plugs his phone in for it to charge overnight and does his best to fall asleep quickly.

He makes it though his classes in the morning without too much trouble. His mom texts him a few times to double check their schedules and that he knows when she and his father will be arriving at Samwell on Saturday. Chowder texts him when he’s on the way to the cafeteria, asking him to sit with the team and that he’s got Dex with him.

Nursey waves to them when he spots their table then goes and gets his food. There’s an open seat waiting for him beside Dex. “Thanks for saving me a seat,” he tells him when he sets his tray down.

“Oh, it wasn’t me,” Dex says and points to Chowder. “He wouldn’t let anybody else sit next to me.”

“But you’re dating,” Chowder says, giving them pleading looks. “You’re supposed to be nice to each other now.”

“We’re not going to change everything just because we’re dating now,” Nursey says.

“We have changed a few things though,” Dex corrects, giving Nursey a look out of the corner of his eye.

“You guys should go on a double date with me and Farmer sometime,” Chowder suggests.

Nursey turns to Dex and he shrugs. “I dunno, C,” Nursey says, looking back to Chowder. “We haven’t really been on a date yet just yet.”

“Is tonight gonna count as our first date?” Dex asks.

“Isn’t tonight the party?” Chowder asks.

Nursey nods. “Yeah, we’re going together.”

“Oh,” Chowder says, perking up. “That’s good. Then maybe the double date can happen after spring break.”

“But,” Dex starts then shakes his head. “We’ll think about it Chowder.”

“I know, I know, but I just think it’s a good idea.”

“You don’t think we’d overwhelm Farmer?” Nursey asks. “All three of us being on the same team and all.”

“Well, she’s gone to a Haus party with me since we started dating,” Chowder says, shrugging his shoulders and starting to look nervous.

“Maybe talk to Farmer before you start making any plans,” Nursey suggests.

Chowder nods, and Nursey jumps when he feels a hand on his shoulder.

“How’re the two love birds doing?” Holster asks, shaking both his and Dex’s shoulders. Dex rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t shove Holster off.

“We’re fine,” Dex says, turning in his seat to face Holster.

“You guys are so lucky it’s not Christmas or Valentine’s or we’d be doing everything we could to get you to kiss at the party,” Ransom says, grinning at them.

“Birthday kisses,” Nursey says, grinning as Dex gives him a flat look even as he’s starting to blush. He’s already heard a rant about his ‘ridiculous’ birthday.    

“But don’t worry, we’ll think of something,” Holster says, giving their shoulders a squeeze.

“You guys really don’t have to,” Dex says, shaking his head. “Nursey’s already working on that.”

Ransom wolf whistles, and Holster slaps Nursey on the back. They move on down to take seats and start eating. Dex sighs, and Nursey turns to give him a questioning look. “What’d you tell them that for?”

“To get them off our backs.”

Nursey shrugs and starts eating.

“Besides it’s true,” Dex adds, not even looking at Nursey when he does it. "Isn't it?"

Nursey smiles then goes back to eating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a great ending, but I need it to get the next chapter started in the right spot.


End file.
